The Legend

Prologue

"Come child, it is time for bed,"

The small girl huffed in annoyance but still did what she was told and trotted to the small bed that she shared with her brother. Her mother was already there waiting at the edge of the bed so she could tuck her small children in.

Once they were all snuggled in and warm, the mother bent down and placed a small kiss on each of their heads. The little boy just gurgled in delight at the same time the little girl giggled.

The mother smiled, turning around to leave, satisfied with her work.

"Mama! Wait,"

The mother glanced over her shoulder to see what her daughter was fussing about. "Yes?"

"Tell us a story!"

Like he understood what his sister was saying the baby screeched in agreement. The mother frowned. "Elizabeth, it's late. Maybe tomorrow."

"Please mama. Just one story. I won't be able to sleep without one." 

The mother sighed, but knowing her daughter and her stubbornness, she would fight her sleep just to prove a point.

The mother made her way back to bed and sat next to her daughter. "What would you like to hear, child?"

"Tell me about the boy in the woods, mama"

"How do you know about that?" The mother was taken aback, she wasn't prepared for her daughter to ask that. 

The girl covered her face with her worn out quilt and mumbled back. The mother pulled away the quilt, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you,"

"Girls at school were talking about it at break,"

The mother shook her head. Children and their gossip. They were almost just as bad as their mothers.

"You're too young to hear that story, child. Maybe when you're older."

The girl unraveled herself from her bed and climbed into her mothers' lap. She clenched onto her mothers' robe and looked up at her with pleading eyes, "Please mama! I swear I'll be a big girl about it!"

The mother knew that once she looked in her daughters' big blue eyes that she already knew her answer.

"Ok, ok. But don't say I didn't warn you,"

The little girl clapped in excitement and quickly crawled back into bed. The mother brushed back some of the coal black hair that had fallen in her daughters' face and smiled at the excitement that was currently radiating off her daughter.

The mother took a deep breath and began,

"A long time ago, when our village was just a few houses and a church, there lived a young boy whose house was just about the closet house to the woods. Now no one person dared to enter those woods, even then. They say that strange things happen to the ones who enter those woods.

But the boy, now the boy had no fear, for he had no one. His mother, died in childbirth and father during a rough hunting season. Now days, one would question what's a boy doing caring for himself. That is an answer we will never know.

One day the council had announced that the upcoming winter was going to be harsh and they needed to prepare. Most people volunteered to plant more crops. Others, said they would help with the clothing. The boy, however, was the only one to raise his hands in volunteering for the hunting. At first the councilmen refused him, telling him they would not risk him. But with some presuming they let him go.

So, on that very night the boy prepared himself for the hunt. People gathered from every part of the village to see the boy go. Some laughed in mockery and others cried in fear, for to everyone the boy was good as dead. But to everyone's shock, by the end of the day the boy was back with his prizes. The village cheered in delight for the boy was the bravest man the village had ever seen! For each day, the boy would go out to those feared woods and he would be back by supper time.

One day everything was going as planned, the people would go to fields to check and the boy had headed out to the hunt. But sometime at midday, something had changed. They say on that very day, you could feel that the air had changed. Soon people were seeing things and hearing things in the woods. It sounded like a bloody fight against a monster. Growling and screams could be heard from miles away. People grew with fright, saying someone needed to be sent in to find the boy. But the council refused, he told his people that the boy would be fine. But that night, the boy did not return. Days passed and there was no sign of the boy.

From that time on, the people of the village swore to never step into those woods again. For they held monster that were only seen in your dreams. They say though, that if you find yourself out in the dark late at night, you can still hear the screams of the bravest man to walk this very village. Hear the screams of the boy who had no one."